City candidates differ on issues

Nancy Flake

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, April 19, 2010

Questions about Conroe’s growth now and in the future - and the impact on sales tax revenues, water and spending - brought about 200 people to the Crighton Theatre Tuesday night for answers from City Council candidates.

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County and The Courier, the forum presented attendees with the opportunity to ask submitted questions to Position 3 candidates Jim Gentry and Charlene Payne, Position 4 candidates Guy Martin and Cara McCollum and Position 5 candidates Leo Hewett and Gil Snider, along with municipal judge candidates James Cates, Michael Davis and Jeff Helms.

While the City Council candidates agreed on some of their positions, there were some sharp divisions as well.

Payne was adamant that she did not support a pay raise the council approved for itself in December 2008.

“I believe when you make a promise, you don’t break a promise,” she said. “The council should not have voted itself a raise, and then turned around and cut employees’ benefits.”

In July 2009, the council approved a change in retiree health insurance benefits; any employees retiring after Dec. 31, 2011, and not meeting the required combination of age and service years won’t have their premiums paid by the city.

The base salary for council members is still $200 a month, Gentry said, and council members asked for $50 additional per each of the council’s four monthly meetings, a $150 monthly car and cell phone allowance.

“The total is $350 a month,” he said. “It’s very difficult for some people to run for council. We felt it would help in that regard.”

They also split on the city’s smoking ordinance, approved last summer.

“I’m a firm believer in not a lot of government in private business,” Payne said. “When a person has made a large economic investment, it should be up to the individual person and business.”

Gentry voted against the ordinance when it first came up in 2006 because “government needs to stay out of business,” he said. “However, we have to respond to what people want, and this time they wanted a smoking ordinance.”

Martin and McCollum agreed that the city has done a good job on revitalizing downtown, but it’s now time to spend money on other areas of the city.

They also agreed that the city needs some form of transit system.

“It can be a huge benefit, and it can bring a lot of money to improve infrastructure,” McCollum said.

But the system should use buses and not trolleys, one of the options the city is looking into, Martin said.

“The trolley is pure folly,” he said. “We need the most efficient system to get people where they need to go. The Brazos Transportation District pays for (a system) in The Woodlands. Why not Conroe?”

The biggest audience response of the night came when Martin and McCollum were asked if they had ever been arrested, and if they believe council members should be tested for drugs and alcohol.

Martin said he was arrested 12 years ago for a domestic dispute. According to Public Data, he was arrested in May 1999 for the misdemeanor charge of assault causes bodily injury; the charge was dismissed less than two months later.

“I took full responsibility for that then, and I take full responsibility for it now,” said Martin, calling his wife Sandy his partner and best friend.

The response drew loud cheers from the crowd and a cry of “cheap shot” from a woman in the audience, prompting moderator Cheryl Crandall Tangen to caution attendees about outbursts.

McCollum has been “a law-abiding citizen my entire life,” she said. “I’m the same person I’ve always been, and I’ll be the same person later. I believe in core values.”

Hewett and Snider disagreed strongly on the city’s use of red-light cameras, which went into effect in February.

“I’ve never run one yet,” Snider quipped. “I support it; it’s pretty wise to have them in some areas of Conroe. It has helped slow down people in critical areas.”

But the lights are “an invasion of people’s privacy,” Hewett said. “They don’t prevent a lot of accidents and may increase rear-end accidents from people trying to stop.”

In the municipal judge race, Cates, who has held the position for 15 years, said it’s a job he enjoys and has time for.

Davis is “running as a Christian,” he said.

“I have the support of over 20 ministers,” he said. “I also am the only candidate to receive the endorsements of the Conroe Police Officers Association and the Conroe Professional Firefighters Association.”

Helms, an assistant district attorney who oversees the Drug Court and DWI Court in the 359th state District Court, said he sought no endorsements “so I would have no connections.”

Davis said he would create a juvenile advisory board.

“If you keep a boy in school, you keep a man out of prison,” he said.

But Helms looked at the municipal court’s numbers from March, and, out of the 1,800 cases heard, only 47 involved juveniles.

“We should get parents’ involvement and community service,” he said.

Cates agreed the court has far more adult cases, but that he believes in trying to get juveniles on the straight path “at the very beginning.”